Friday, February 27, 2009

Reports of the positive effects of the VComm program continue to come in. Today we heard from Stewart Little of IRT.

"VComm represented an excellent introduction to the American venture capital scene. Not only was the room filled with the right people – they were warmed up, welcoming and ready to invest. The online training from the organizers was fantastic for the novice presenter and seasoned campaigner alike. Your YouTube and New Tech Press videos concisely focused on the key message and importantly only took ten minutes out of the viewer's day.

"By following your hints and tips on successful presenting we have been approached by 5 VC’s with an interest in investing. In turn the venture community is now talking about us and we have seen an uplift in our web traffic stateside as a direct result. The most significant development has actually happened 6 weeks after the event via a referral from one VC to another – that result is one of the largest venture capital funds in the world have requested a conference call with us and want to go to the next level.

"The American culture is aligned with ours, but at the same time - totally different! They want to invest and make decent returns – but are far more willing to invest larger sums with a higher risk – and ultimately net higher yields.

"VComm is an ideal opportunity to enter the “get to know you” phase of that relationship and represents a golden opportunity for any company wishing to go down this path. VComm opened the door and enabled that process. Follow the advice and you can’t go far wrong!"

Monday, January 12, 2009

UK, 12 January 2009 – Nine Scottish technology start-ups are visiting California next week to meet with potential investors in VComm, an initiative sponsored by SDI (Scottish Development International) and organised by Edinburgh Stanford Link and the Millennium Group.

According to Allan Currie, International Director from SDI, “VComm is an exceptionally exciting event bringing together the best of Scotland’s technology entrepreneurs with top Californian Venture Capitalists. Both entrepreneurs and investors arrive at the event well prepared. The VComm package includes elevator pitch training for the entrepreneurs, third party endorsements for each pitch as well as pre-briefings for the investors to help them use their time at the event effectively.”

Colin Adams, Director of Commercialisation at the Edinburgh University School of Informatics added, “The number and quality of the participating start-ups shows that Scotland remains an extremely fertile ground for business innovation, with talented entrepreneurs developing world class products and technologies. VComm can make a real difference to their long term success by providing a positive and well-structured avenue into the billions of capital invested annually by California VC funds.”

VComm takes place in Redwood City from 08:15am. There representatives from more than some of the leading VC funds in Silicon Valley attending the event.

Design LED Products Limited aims to be the world’s leading supplier of printed light-guide technology for segmented displays. The company will become a global supplier of its unique lighting technology in a wide range of consumer electronics, automotive, medical and point of sale products.

Dot Red Games develops fun, easy-to-get-to-grips-with but addictive casual games using high-end technologies like real-time effects and artificial intelligence (AI) while maintaining compatibility with all major Operating Systems (OSs) and still having low machine requirements. Its games are Windows, MacOs & Linux friendly.

The iCEphone™ from the Medical Phone Ltd is an outstanding tool for use in a crisis - originally designed to meet the exacting requirements of the British military. iCEphone™ is a combination of two exciting new products: as tunning and novel smartphone and a unique medical software package.

iBehave will revolutionise the way behaviour is analysed by automating the capture, storage and analysis of behavioural data. It provides an integrated solution for behaviour screening and analysis enabling rapid development from novel behavioural assay through to automated high throughput screening delivering significant competitive advantage to end users.

IRT Surveys aims to pioneer and dominate the field of thermography on a global scale through its web portal and bureau service. It has developedpatent protected energy quantification software that adds values to thermal images for KWh, CO2 emissions and monitory values to aid building surveyors, energy consultants and utility companies assess energy losses from buildings. Mutators’ mission is to originate the technology that will allow anyone to create 3D buildings and customise content for Virtual Worlds, using advanced procedural modelling and genetic algorithms.

NXVision technology offers TV viewers the opportunity to watch ‘live’ or recorded TV programmes on an ever increasing range of portable/handheld mobile media devices that can utilise WiFi and or 3G mobile broadband services.

Snocat ltd has developed a web based application called Vibio (view inventory by invitation only) that contains a range of features that will make trading via eBay, Craigslist, Amazon and Freecycle etc far safer, easier and more enjoyable. Vibio aims to become the leading social network for traders within the company’s chosen market sectors.

About The Millennium GroupThe Millennium Group is an affiliation of eleven top technology agencies. Each is an owner-managed operation, with a results-focussed approach to technology PR. Each is staffed by nationals of the region in which they operate, and shares the culture and passions of the technology press community in its region.

About The Edinburgh Stanford LinkThe Edinburgh Stanford Link was established in February 2002, when Scottish Enterprise awarded the University of Edinburgh a fund of £6 million to develop a collaborative research and commercialisation programme with Stanford University in California.

The focus of the programme, called the Edinburgh-Stanford Link, is on basic and strategic research in language technology, entrepreneurship training, and technology transfer and commercialisation.

For further information please contact the VComm team at: vcomm@neesham.co.uk or on 01506 670800

What it's all about

VComm Venture Faire, to be held January 21, 2009 at the Seaport Conference Center in City, California, gives European technology start-up companies every advantage to pitch their companies/technology to a group of venture capitalists based in the Silicon Valley, and get vital funding from people who understand their business.

• Training - VComm trains and guides participating companies to maximise their impact with the VC community• Third party validation - Through links with the industry figure heads, analyst and trade press communities VComm will provide third party validation of each opportunity presented• Investor preparation - VComm will create a high quality video of each participating company presentation exclusively accessible to selected VCs online• The VComm iPod - VComm provides registered VCs with an iPod pre-loaded with the presentations, allowing them to browse and view at their convenience• Customer forum - VComm enables participants and sponsors to present their product/technology to potential customers/partners on the US west coast through an additional customer focused forum